New administrator says AbaQulusi exists in a ‘sorry state’

Lolo Madonsela
The newly appointed Administrator of AbaQulusi Local Municipality, Sibusiso Mkhize believes management is ‘taking advantage of the collapsing municipality’.
Mkhize was speaking at a Council meeting held last week Thursday, where for the first time a recovery plan was tabled.
Ever since the municipality was placed under administration by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) earlier this year, with a ministerial representative overseeing affairs, it has had two administrators.
Mkhize was hailed as the first to ever present a recovery plan to Council. His tenacity was applauded by the Speaker of Council, Michael Khumalo, “This is the first time we are having a recovery plan since there has been intervention in the municipality. We did hear of it but it has never been presented to us, therefore we are happy to hear of the recovery report for the first time to know where we stand and where we are going,” said Cllr Khumalo.

Also read: MEC of CoGTA lays down the law for AbaQulusi councillors

Mkhize presented his findings, diagnoses and analysis of the municipality and found 67 areas of deficiency, of which five were his primary focus, including service delivery, financial stability and good governance.
“The municipality is in a sorry state of financial affairs and fiscal control is going to be the main key here,” said Mkhize.
In his summary of challenges, Mkhize commented, “Oversight has collapsed and management is taking advantage of the collapsing AbaQulusi.”
He assured Council he was not there to dictate but was seeking ‘collective wisdom’.
“I am forming a choir and I will be the conductor, because the people who know the municipality better are the people from the municipality.”
On basic services, Mkhize said there was an urgent need to come up with a long-term plan of action, together with the Zululand District Municipality.
He said the municipality needed to spend the entire grant given for basic services and stated electricity projects which had been stalled needed to be implemented urgently.
On financial viability, Mkhize said the municipality owed a lot of money and had no financial valuable assets. Members of Council were happy with the Administrator’s report and said they were in agreement with him that the municipality was indeed in a state of paralysis, and there was no real oversight. Council also concluded the recovery plan was going to help AbaQulusi in the long run and would help the municipality regain its former glory.
When CoGTA placed AbaQulusi under administration, its justification among others were the allegations that the municipality had an unfunded budget, was engaged in ‘perpetual costly litigation’ and recruitment processes were being interfered with.Type a message.

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